Chocolate and like refiner roll machine



Oct. 15,1940.

A. A TUNLEY ET AL CHOCOLATE AND LIKE REFINER ROLL MACHINE Original Filed April :5, 1934 2 Sheets- Sheet 1' ALLANAJHMEAD Tum/.27

JOHN, CURR/EPAERSQ/V' Oct. 15, 1940. I TUNLEY ET AL 2,217,974

CHOCOLATE AND LIKE REFINER ROLL MACHINE Original Filed April 3, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ALMA/ HA/ Dm/VLEYQ JOHNCU/PR/EPA TERJOM L d r Patented Oct. 15, 1940 718,798. Divided and this application 3, 1937, Serial No. 134,765

, I v 1 Claim.

This invention relates to refiner rollmachines for grinding chocolate and like material to a very fine-paste. v

The object of the present invention is to provide improved means whereby the working clearance or nip between co-operating pairs of rolls may be adjustedwithout disturbing or requiring a corresponding readjustment of another .or others of the rollsiof the series, l

9 According to a feature of the invention, in a five-roll refiner or like machine ,having 'a series of co-operating rolls, a fixed abutment is provided which may be the trunnion housing of one,

placed while maintaining their respective clearance or nip.

The inventionz'consists in' making the "bearing housings or likemountings of the rolls dependent one upon the other 'so" that the displacementof the upper of an intermediate pair of the vertical series of rolls, displaces those aboveit as a unit tween such.

According to one form, the bearing housings of a series of rolls are joined together-by linking them intermediate the adjustable members such as eccentrics or cams, while in another form'the housings of each roll bear upon the housings beneath by gravity and with or without supplementary resilient pressure, through the intermediary of an anti-frictional adjustable wedge device, eccentric, or other variable member. The

April 7, 1933.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate" the application of the invention to a five-roll 55 chocolate refiner,

Figure 1" is a cross section of the refiner, the 2 section being taken through the roll adjusting mechanism, 7

Figure 2 is a corresponding front view partly m in section,

the abutment (or abutment roll) are bodily dis "of the adjacent pair of-rolls.

rolls to adjust the working clearance or nip beclaimed in our British Patent bro-417,723, dated UNITED STATES v PATENT: OFFICE.

CHOCOLATE AND LIKE REFINER ROLL MACHINE Allan Ashinead Tunley and John Currie Paterson, Peterborough, England, assignors' to] Baker Perkins Company Inc., Saginaw, Mich.

Original application April 3, 1934, Serial Na April Qj Figure 3 isa detail-of the toggleadjusting mechanism. j l Inthe drawings; Figures land 2 show the-invention applied to, say, a five-roll refiner in which aseries l0, ll,'l2, l3 of the rolls are arranged with their-axes substantially in a vertical'p'lane,

the lowermost roll H! of the-series is mounted-in bearing housings It, the vertical positions of;

one side of thermachine only, for convenience,

the uppermost side of the" lowermost [(fixed) bearing housing. and thelowerinost'side' of the uppermost housing, and theupper and lower, sidesof the housings l5 and I6'of intermediate rolls are provided with faces or plates I9 located parallel with the axes of the refiner rolls; The bearing plates IS'are mounted on' the housings by pins Illa engaging apertures in the housings.

Mounted between the-opposing'faces H! are wedge means, adjustably mounted so' that slightfric 1 I tional movements thereof tend to adjust the axes Accordingto the preferred mm; the wedge means'comprises a toggle device consisting of a ifngfblock 2| which'is adjustable in a direction at right angles to the plane of theaxes of the refiner v, rolls The plates IS on the housings and the blockv 2| are provided with grooves "to accom-f modate the edges of the toggle plates-20. v Each toggle block 2| may be'carried by a, screw-threaded spindle '22 passing" throughit'and by which it, is actuated for adjusting the'toggle;

spindles are threaded to receive worm wheel's126- which mesh withworms 21 carried by the mount ing 23 Rotation of the hand wheel 28. Y r

The toggle adjustment maybe separately ef-l 1 fected in connection with the bearing housings pair oii'substantially upright thrust-transmitting:

toggle plates 20 and an'adjustable thrust-producon each end of the rolls or the toggles for'feach pair of rolls may be'adjusted together by operating their .spindles22 from acommon hand wheel throughbejv'el or. other gear.

According to a convenient arrangement, (see Figure 3) an actuating spindle 29 extends between the worms 21, 21a associated with apair of advided with a clutch 3| coupling it to the w rm; la

and a second clutch 32 coupling it to the operating hand wheel 28. The latter is splinedpt'o the spindle and a nut 33 is provided so that the hand.

wheel may be-drawn back to de-clutch, it from the spindle.

At the other end the spindle is provided with a short sleeve 34 forming a clutch element which is coupled to the worm wheel 21. The sleeve 34 is fixed to the spindle by a set screw 35.

By this arrangement when the parts are in the position shown in Figure 29 will cause an adjustment of both ends of the rolls, 1. e., a displacement of the roll. On slacking back the nut 33 and declutching the hand wheel 28 from the sleeve 30, only the worm 21 will be actuated with consequent adjustment of the corresponding ends of the rolls relatively to the other ends.

The uppermost bearing housing [1 of the series is provided with a resilient spring device comprising a spring 36 located horizontally and acting through a rod 31 upon a bell crank lever 38, one arm'of which engages a lever 39 pivoted to the framing 24 and bearing upon the housing l1 whereby a resilient pressure is brought to bear upon the housing and consequently presses downwardly all the bearing housings and maintains a close contact between them and their toggle means. As an alternative to employing resilient spring pressure, counterweighted levers may be employed to produce a similar eflect by gravity or a combined gravitational and resilient pressure may be employed.

Fixed and accurate adjustment is the keynote of the problem, and this problem is solved by having adequate pressure tending to force the rolls together and providing unyielding andincompressible wedge or toggle means which acts variably to limit the or variably to thrust them outward against the spring load. It will be seen, therefore, that the function of thesprings 36 is to thrust the rollers together hard against the separating .means and,

the displacement, on the I one hand, while on the other hand enablin'g the be moved outward-under so to speak, follow up rolls automatically to the thrust of the wedging means.

Any roll, such as the initial roller 4a of the refiner, which is out of the vertical plane of the main series of rolls may be provided with adjustment means 4| independently with respect to the roller ill with which it co-operates.

According to the above arrangement assuming it is desired, for example, to adjust the clearance of nip between the first and second rolls I0 and of vertical series. of rolls, the handwheel'of the appropriate toggles is rotated to retractor thrust the clearance be increasedthen the second roller accordance cgease the clearance then in the block 2| according to whether it is desired to increase or decrease the roll clearance. If

H and those above it, I! and it, are raised in with the amount of adjustment effected, but as the rolls i2 and it above are moved asaunit, the adjustment produces no alteration of theclearances between H and I2 and between I! and ii. If the block 2| isadjusted to dethe second roller and t ose above it will be lowered as a unit a corresponding extent. Similarly, the clearance between any pairjof rolls of the series may be adjusted.

The bearing housings H to H for the vertical series of rolls are carried by levers 42 which are pivoted in the framework 24 at 43. Levers 42 and 3 rotation of the shaft.

inward movement of the r0118,

usual style of mounting for these housings or blocks is ineffectual in roll mills of this kind, because from a practical point of view, it is impossible to construct blocks sliding in vertical guides without back lashor rocking play. We have, therefore, adopted the pivoted arm arrangement in order to remove from the construction the possibility of error in this respect. Obviously, it would be futile to devise an adjustment means adapted to secure the very high degree of accuracy required in chocolate refining rolls if the bearings or their supports themselves had clearances permitting material displacement to occur.

Conveniently the levers 42 and the toggles and their adjusting means are located in'compartments formed by parallel'walls H of the side frame members. i

In orderto close the spaces between the bearing housings I1, the latter are provided with plate elements 45 which loosely engage rebates ii in the edges of the frame members 44.. Adjacent edges of the plate are formed with overlapping parts 41. y

The plates 45 of the lowest housings H engage a horizontal surface 48 which support the housing ina definite position so that the housing ll acts as an abutment to take the thrust of the toggles or wedge means. members ll, slidable plates 45 and their overlapping parts 41 provide a mechanism in which the parts, with the exception of the rolls, are totally enclosed, so that oil. and grease can not be splashed about and onto the rolls.

Certain modifications in the structure shown may bemadewithout departing from the invention. For example, instead of providing the feeding roll with anindependent adjusting device, this roll maybe fixed and provide the abutment, in which case, the roll Hi may be adjustable "as to-height' by toggle means betweenthe housing I of such roll'and a suitable part of the framework.

I Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by' Letters Patentis:

In a multiple roll 'refineror like. machineineluding. a vertical series of co-operating rolls each mounted in journal housings carried onthe ends-of leverspivoted to a fixed support, each journal housing of said series below the topmost roll being in weight-supporting relationshipwith the journal housing adjacent it, in combination, resilient pressure means acting upon the and roll of the series of rolls tourge theadjacent rolls of said series-together, and means for adjusting and maintaining the nip between adjacent rolls counter to the action of said resilient pressure means, each of said adjusting means comprising a thrust-producing block-like element between each pair of adjacent rolls movable lengthwise in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the axes of the rolls, and co-operative incompressible thrust transmitting means between saidelement and the adjacent housings adapted for slight rotational movement between said element and roll, said thrust-producing elements and thrust-transmitting means being bodily displaceable vertically with their associated journal housings.

ALLAN ASHMEAD TUNLEY. JOHN CURRIE PATER SON.

iii

The levers 42, frame 

